Fourdrinier machine.



G. SCHENCK- FOURDRINIER MACHINE! APPLICATION FILED APR. I7, 1916.

Patented N 0v. 20, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

G. SCHENCK. FOURDBINIER MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 17, 1916- 1,246,945. Patented Nov. 20, 1 917.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2- Win '65 a G. SCHENCK.

FOURDRINIER MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 17. 1916- Patented'NOv. 20, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEETS.

; p; enemas EPA- runt ora ion GARRET SCHENGK, OF MILLINOCKET, MAINE, ASSIGNOR T0 GREAT NORTI-IEIRN COMPANY, OF MILLINOCKET, MAINE, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

FOURDRINIER MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 20, 191

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, GARRET SOHENGK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Millinocket, in the county of Penobscot and State of Maine, have invented an Improvement in Fourdrinier Machines, of which the following is a specification.

Papermaking machines of the Fourdrinier type usually comprise, generally speaking, means for forming a Web involving a papermaking wire, and means for pressing and drying the web involving pressing and drying felts and drying-rolls. When the web of paper leaves the machine, it usually passes to a calender.

The calendering operation is commonly performed by a stack of cold cylinders, which squeeze the thoroughly dried paper and crush down any inequalities due to shives or other causes, so that the'paper will have an even thickness and smooth finish. WVith certain very slow-running machines, a high polish may be given to one side of the paper by a single drying drum, but for many kinds of paper, particularly newspaper, for which this invention is particularly designed, slow-running machines, producing a different finish on the two sides of the paper, are inapplicable, and in practice it has been found necessary to put the paper through a special calendering operation. Such calendering operation causes a very substantial proportion of the breaks'in the paper and consequent stoppages of the machine, and in addition, injures the strength of the finished product by the high crushing pressure necessarily appliedto smooth out the inequalities in the paper after it has been entirely dried.

This invention consists in arranging certain cylinders to act both for drying and for pressing out the inequalities and shives in the paper'and give it the requisite finish. By this arrangement, the shives in the web of paper are pressed out while moist, in which condition a comparatively slight pressure will reduce them to the thicknes s'of the remainder of the sheet, and the smoothing out and finishing of thepaper is obtained without crushing and weakening the paper and without the loss of time and material caused by breaks at the calender.

The cylindrical surfaces of the usual drying cylinders are not sufficiently accurate to engage adjacent drying cylinders throughout the entire length with a uniform pres sure, and, therefore, such cylinders cannotbe used to perform the results which I obtain, and-only when they are purposely re arranged relative to each other to engage ad acent cylinders, and are also purposely ground to provide accurately formed'complemental cylindrical surfaces, so that an even or uniform pressure will be produced throughout their entire length, will the result sought by me, be accomplished. I, therefore, avoid the employment of a calender at the end of the machine. 7

There .is another object obtained by omitting the usual calender. At the present t1me,'fast running machines are being more and more lntroduced, and the faster the machine is run, the more drying cylinders are required to dry the paper, and when these additional drying cylinders are added to the length of the machine, the ordinary mills now built are not long enough to receive them, and also provide room for the calender and the other necessary space at the leaving end of the machine, but with my invention the space usually occupied by the calender is available for the use of extra drying cylinders.

'My newly formed drying cylinders may be arranged in pairs, one above the other, so that there will be one line of contact or point of engagement between the cylinders of each pair, or they may be staggered with respect to each other, so that each drying cylinder will engage two adjacent drying cylinders, with the exception of the endmost cylinders of the set. The latter arrangement, however, requires the cylindrical surface of each drying cylinder to be "so' formed as to engage complementally two where the cylinders are arranged in pairs,

although in this way six drylng cylinders will give only three pinches to the web, while with the staggered arrangement, six c linders W g e five p nc es I am aware that it has been proposed to provide pressing or calendering means between the drying cylinders of a ldourdrinier machine, which means was independent of the dryin cylinders, but, so far as I am aware, no practical embodiment of such proposition has ever been produced, and the construction set forth in this specification,

is, so far as I am aware, entirely novel.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a Fourdrinier machine illustrating a set of drying cylinders constructed and arranged to embody my invention,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged transverse section of the machine, illustrating one pair of rolls.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of one of the bearings.

Fig. i is a fragmentary detail of the control for the hydraulic jacks which are asso ciated with the bearings for the roll.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of a modified form of the invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, 10 represents the drying cylinders journaled in bearings supported by the side f'rames 15; and 16 the upper felt, and 17 the lower felt, which felts are associated with the drying cylinders in usual manner. 18' represents the. web of paper. The drying cylinders of the setare arranged one above the other in pairs, there being three pairs here shown. The cylinders of each pair are in engagement with each other at the points marked 20, a line of contact being made at such point. Each cylinder has its cylindrical surface ground to engage complementally its fellow cylinder, with accuracy, so as to exert a uniform pres sure throughout the entire width of the sheet passed between them, so as to serve as calenders as well as driers.

These cylinders are made hollow and adapted to be heated by any suitable means, as for instance, one of the journals of each cylinder may be made tubular through which steam may pass to the interior of the cylinder', and there may be supported, by a bracket 13, on the inner end of the tubular journal, a siphon pipe 14. Such heatingmeans does not uniformly heat the cylindrical walls of the cylinders throughout their entire area, hence the grinding of the cylindrical surfacesmust be carefully per formed to insure their complemental engagement.

Unless the cylinders, when heated, engage each-other so as to exert an even pressure throughout their entire length, the paper will notpress evenly 0r uniformly throughout its entire width, and will not serve as calenders as well as driers.

These newly-formed dryingcylinders, or drying cylinders having calendering surfaces when arranged in engagement with each other, are adapted to be driven by any usual or suitable means.

The cylinders are very heavy, weighing many tons, and it is desirable to variably reduce the pressure of the upper cylinders on the lower cylinders, due to their great weight, such variation being more or less according to the work to be done. For the accomplishment of this result the journals of the upper cylinders are arranged in bearing, boxes 25, see Fig. 3, adapted for sliding movement in the side-frames, and said boxes are surmounted on and supported by upright jack-rods 26, of a hydraulic jack, which rods extend downward into hydraulic cylinders 27, and beer at their lower ends suitable pistons 28, which are adapted to work in said cylinders. There is a pipe 29 connected with each pair of hydraulic cylin ders, which are arranged at the opposite ends of each upper cylinder, see Fig. 4, having a controlling-valve 30, by which water under pressure, or steam, or compressed air may be admitted to the hydraulic cylinders or al lowed to escape, thereby to raise the pistons or permit them to descend.

By means of these hydraulic jacks the upper cylinders may be lifted, and the range of motion is sutlicient to lift them entirely free from the lower cylinder. VVhen' said upper cylinders are permitted to descend a very accurate adjustment is required to va riably reduce their pressure on the lower cylinders, due to their great weight, and herein a ring-nut 31, is arranged on the threaded portion of the jack-rod 26:, adapted to engage a pair of lugs 32, extended'inward from hubs 33, 33, pivotally supported on studs 34, an, said hubs bearing'arms 35, 35, which are extended upward, the extremities of which arms haveholes through them, and a horizontally arranged bar is tended loosely through the holes in'the'ein tremities of the arms, which bar has nuts arranged on its extremities at the outside of the arms.

The weight of the cylinder is transmitted through the ring nuts and lugs to the piv oted arms, whereupon said arms have a tendency to swing in a direction toward each other, and means are arranged on the bar to counteract this movement. As here shown, there'm'ay be a nut 36 arranged on the bar at the inside of one of thearnis, which obstructs its movement toward the other arm, and aspring37 is arranged on the bar, one end of which engagesthe inside of'the other arm, and the other end of which engages a nut38 on the threaded'portion of the bar, by whichsaid spring may be adjusted to vary its resisting force, said spring resisting movement of the arm which it engages in a direction toward the other arm. By th'is'means ofadjus'tment'the full weight of the upper cylin'derlmay be variably reduced as much or little as desired.

Furthermore, this adjusting means is'in dependent of the lifting-means, so that the lifting-means may be operated to lift the cylinder without disturbing the adjustment by which the descent of the cylinder is determined. This is an advantage for it enables the adjustment to be set and thereafter maintained notwithstanding the cylinder may be repeatedly lifted.

Also associated with the upper and with the lower cylinders arestrippers 40, arranged tangentially thereto and suitably supported,.whicl1 are adapted to. strip the web from the cylinders in case it has a tendency to adhere thereto.

Referring to Fig. 5, the drying cylinders are formed substantially the same as in Fig. 1, but are staggered with respect to each other so that they engage two adjacent cylinders, thus multiplying the number of times the paper is engaged and pressed. In this form, however, much more difficulty is encountered in grinding the cylindrical surfaces to make them conform to each other in such a manner that a uniform pressure is produced throughout their entire length when in engagement. The upper cylinders are or may be supported by adjustable bearings.

I claim 1. A Fourdrinier papermaking machine having a series of rotatable drying cylinders arranged in upper and lower tiers in staggered relation, each cylinder of the upper tier having a bearing surface formed complemental to the two adjacent cylinders of the other tier, bearings arranged to permit the cylinders of the upper tier to exert a substantial and uniform pressure on the cylinders of the lower tier throughout the width of the paper sheet to be passed between them, a felt for the upper drying cylinders and a felt for the lower drying cyl inders, and guiding and driving means-for the same, whereby the paper may be led around the drying cylinders and-between their points of engagement.

2. A Fourdrinier papermaking machine having a series of rotatable hollow drying cylinders arranged in upper and lower tiers for engagement, said cyllnders having their cylindrical surfaces formed to insure complemental engagement, when heated, thereby to exert a substantial and uniform pressure throughout their engaging length, movable bearing' boxes for the journals of the cylinders of the upper tier, means for lifting said upper cylinders, and adjustable means for limiting the descent of said .upper cylinders to variably reduce the pressure due to the weight of the cylinders.

3. A Fourdrinier papermaking machine having a series of rotatable hollow drying cylinders arranged in upper and lower tiers for engagement, said cyllnders having their cylindrical surfaces formed to insure complemental engagement, when heated, thereby to exert a substantial and uniform pressure throughout their engaging length movable bearing boxes for the journals 0 the cylinders of the upper tier, hydraulic jacks for lifting said'cylinders, means arranged on the jack-rods, and adjustable means adapted'to be engaged by the means on the jack-rods for limiting the descent of the cylinders, thereby to variably reduce the pressure due to the Weight of the cylinders.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. I

GARRET SCHENOK.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM O. MCKAY, LESTER B. SMITH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

